Is there a way to detect species that tend to be mixed together in identifications?

General
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Hi all!
Right now I’m working on a book on seaweeds and other marine macrophytes in my region. As it is a feature I find very helpful, I am adding a section of “common confusions” in every species. Some of the possible confusions are obvious, as they are tricky even for experts. Others, however, are not so obvious to me and other people that have spent some years studying algae. However, during my activity in iNat as an identifier I have seen that some species tend to be mixed by the unexperienced eye.

So, my question is: Is there a way to detect species that tend to be mixed together? or another way to see common and repeated errors in identification? Maybe through an API? This information would be very valuable for people in situations such as mine, or educators in general.

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Yes, for instance:

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1271114

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https://api.inaturalist.org/v2/identifications/similar_species?verifiable=any&taxon_id=1271114

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You may be interested in this discussion: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-things-are-misidentified-as-large-milkweed-bug/12571

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I can’t believe I never saw that “Similar species” tab on the taxon page before!! How do things get added to that tab?

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In the top righthand corner of each species under the “Similar species” tab is the number of observations that have been confused. Click on the number to produce a list of observations. Note that the URL uses the ident_taxon_id_exclusive parameter, which takes a pair of taxon IDs.

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I imagine they’re added automatically, by which species are most commonly suggested on observations by the final community ID?

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Thank you very much, i don’t understand how I missed this. It is indeed a very useful tool. Thanks!

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